


Not Really About James Fowler

by wneleh



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Gen, James Fowler, Stages of Faith, YouTube
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 07:06:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3641226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wneleh/pseuds/wneleh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I don’t see how this could possibly end well.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Really About James Fowler

**Author's Note:**

> I get a heavy-duty Christian vibe from Rhett&Link but they resist every effort to be drawn into discussing their personal experiences of religion, even in the most general terms, AFAICT, though they're happy to talk other peoples religion - eager, actually. Googling turns up that they were deeply involved in Christian organizations as young adults, but the most recent information I can find on religious belief and practice is [this post from 2010](http://rhettandlinkommunity.com/forum/topics/i-heard-from-my-cousin-you-two?commentId=2452419%3AComment%3A87751), which I quote in this story in its entirety.
> 
> What led to this post? Here's my take. The Cape Fear River bits are a riff on [Ear Biscuit Ep. 58 - Sports](https://soundcloud.com/earbiscuits/ep-58-rhett-link-sports-ear-biscuits).

Not Really About James Fowler

On an unseasonably warm February afternoon, four hours before the biggest basketball game of his life, as he broke the surface of the Cape Fear River, Rhett had made a deal with God. 

“Give me strength,” he’d prayed, “don’t let Link drown, and I’ll let us lose tonight.”

\- - - - - 

The original forum question had been simple enough to answer, if they’d chosen – “Are you guys Christians?” “Yes.” 

But there’d been a follow-up, a reference to the Phil Vischer videos, and to a ‘non-profit ministry’ that could be referring to a bunch of things. And then, “Tell us about how you are down with God.”

“I think we should just give a Sunday School-Youth Group Lord-and-Savior answer once and for all,” said Link. “To keep dodging this, it feels like we’re Peter at Gethsemane.”

\- - - - -

Through too-frigid, opaque water, Rhett had pulled Link, coughing, limbs bizarrely useless, up the bank of a slip of an island, then up against his chest. “Thank you thank you thank you,” he’d chanted, as Link’s coughs got louder, deeper; as his friend finally began to shake.

\- - - - - 

“Anything that’s not perfunctory… will be wrong,” said Rhett. “How are ‘we’ ‘down with God’? We’re not the same person!”

“You’re overthinking this,” said Link. “Are we making Christian videos for Christians? No. Are we trying to convert the heathen? God, no. Do we have an agenda? Again, no.”

\- - - - -

On a cooler day, a week before their river misadventure, Rhett had brought James Fowler’s _Stages of Faith_ to their rock, and they’d argued back and forth about whether they were Stage 3-Synthetic-Conventionals, seeking salvation through right-thought conformity, or Stage 4-Individuative (real word!) Reflectives, grappling with inconsistencies and bad things happening to good people; whether they even wanted to reach Stage 5-Conjunctive, in touch with an unnamable, unboundable Truth, because it sounded so much like ‘conjunctivitis’; whether their favorite little old ladies were a blend of Stage 2-Mythic Literal and Stage 6-Universalizing. 

Whether Mr. Fowler had even ever been to North Carolina, or had tried to understand the faith landscape of a smart southern Evangelical; whether he could even could grasp that folks like Rhett’s parents existed. 

Whether they were sinning then and there trying to build faith from any source but the Gospels.

Link, of course, had wanted the higher grade – to land himself solidly in Stage 4, though Rhett’d told him that he was the most Stage 3ish Stage 3ee he’d ever known. “End of the day, you follow rules,” said Rhett. “If there aren’t any, you invent them.”

Their Rule of the Rock was that you couldn’t talk unless you sat atop it; there was no rule, however, prohibiting raspberries and flinging pebbles.

\- - - - - -

On the island, still holding Link, Rhett had wondered what Mr. Fowler would have thought. He’d just made a deal with God; so far, the Almighty had done His part. But they still needed to get back to Link’s car. “Get us back without having to go deeper than our knees, and I’ll miss every layup,” he’d prayed. 

But Link, shaken by his own helplessness as much as by the cold, Rhett surmised, hadn’t wanted to get moving yet, so they’d stayed on their moss-covered rock, until Link had jerked and turned. “Shit, the playoffs!”

\- - - - - 

Twenty years and twenty miles away, Link was still as given to sudden realizations of the obvious. “We’re too linked with the JellyTelly work.”

“So, we do what? Disavow it? There’s nothing in those vids we disagree with,” said Rhett. At the time, they’d just seemed a harmless way to make a bit of cash and show off their Bible literacy. He and Link hadn’t even used their own names. This last bit, though, gave the impression that the vids were somehow secret, were part of some stealthy plan of theirs.

Rhett signed. “I think we need to mention them, hang a lantern on it, move on.”

\- - - - -

They’d made it back to shore, wading between rocks, then scrambling through brambles.

Rhett hadn’t had to work to throw the evening’s game; the ball slipped through his fingers, his legs felt made of lead.

Only after, lying inexplicably awake, he’d wondered why God had punished all of Harnett Central for his and Link’s mistakes. Why He’d made Rhett keep the deal. Or had Rhett just psyched himself out that night, while a distant God messed around creating other worlds?

What stage of faith made deals with God? Then regretted the outcome?

\- - - - - 

“I think we could actually do some good with this,” said Link. “Say something about mature faith and living for God and, hell, if you want to give a shout-out to humanism, go for it.”

“Our audience would love that.”

“John Green’s would.”

“John’s totally pushing Stage 5,” said Rhett. “I think I’m a stage 4 lifer.” 

“Still sounds too much like an eye disease,” said Link, and if Rhett had had a pebble he would have thrown it at him.

“Our faith affects everything,” Link continued, clearly thinking hard. He paused, then said, “I think we owe it to Christian kids out there, if nothing else, to acknowledge this. And maybe show them that Christianity doesn’t equal bigotry or ignorance.”

“I don’t see how this could possibly end well.”

“Okay, then not a vid,” said Link. “Just a statement, an answer to this kid. Want me to throw something together, let you poke holes in it?”

Rhett signed. “No, I’ll do it.”

He grabbed Link’s laptop and began to type.

Permalink Reply by Rhett (Shahbaz) on June 3, 2010 at 9:36am Yes, Link and I are Christians....and it's a big part of our lives and influences the nature of our content. However, our videos are not Christian, and this Kommunity is not for people of any particular faith. The work we did on the Bentley Brothers characters is for Phil Vischer's JellyTelly series...it's not "Rhett & Link" content, per se, and it shows up in a different place. We understand that a lot of people are passionate about their faith, and they want public figures of that same faith to "take a stand" or "let people know the deal". But, our focus is to make people laugh and bring some light into their lives through our videos. As a result, you're not gonna see us directly address issues of faith through our comedy content. Also, we're not interested in getting into a long, drawn out discussion about how we communicate our faith, so this answer is going to have to suffice, and I'm going to close this discussion. Thanks for the question!



End file.
